Real Time or Real-Time

The tech industry loves to communicate how quickly new products share information, but what's the correct way to write this time term? See how you do.

Which one of these sentences is correct?

  1. It shows data in real time.

  2. It shows data in real-time.

  3. It shows data in realtime.

And the correct answer is the first one, "real time." The noun is two words ("the app sends it in real time") while the adjective is hyphenated ("the app sends it with real-time speed"). Although there's some argument for writing "real time" as one word, like "downtime" and "overtime," we're not there yet, and most dictionaries continue to list "real time" as the noun spelling.

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Pronunciation Poise: Short-lived